Anchors Away: A Family-Focused CBT Skills App (Anchors App)

PROJECT ABSTRACT Anxiety disorders are among the most common psychological disorders with prevalent onset in early to midchildhoodRisk factors for childhood anxiety include behavioral inhibitionparental negative affect and parenting stressalong with parental anxiety levelswhich appear to moderate both symptom onset and improvementWhile cognitive behavioral therapyCBTis considered the first line treatment for pediatric anxietythere are many barriers to accessing CBT for families with anxious children and parent anxiety likely amplifies these barriersInterventions leveraging technologyincluding CBT based treatments for child anxietyhave been demonstrated to be effective and efficientyet these interventions lack widespread disseminationAnchors AwayA Family Focused CBT Skills AppAnchors Appis a Phase II SBIR proposal to continue the development of a parent driven CBT skills program for children experiencing anxiety symptoms that addresses many of these access barriers and will be marketed directly to familiesOur Phase I SBIR project was successful in creating an interactiveweb based CBT skills program for children with mild anxietyAcceptability and feasibility results showed parents needed more resources to make them feel confident coaching and prompting their child and modeling of proactive coping behaviors and skills rehearsalAlsothe families indicated children who were younger and had less severe anxiety might get more benefit from the program and a mobile format would assist in the ecological validity of the programThusin Phase IIwe will develop Anchors Appa mobile version of the program with expanded parent contentto target younger childrenagestowith sub clinical to mild anxiety with the goal of preventing onset or reducing severity of anxiety disordersTo empirically validate this technology and its contentwe will conduct a professional panel evaluation of the program and complete clinical efficacy testing with a randomized controlled trialRCTAnchors App will broadly impact the appeal and affordability of accessing CBT skill concepts and has the potential to dramatically change the landscape of mental health care by providing a clinically effective tool direct to parents for early outreachrapid disseminationand preventive care